O.J. Simpson Parole Hearing Attracts 13 Million On Traditional TV

Nearly 13 million people watched on traditional TV as a Nevada board approved parole for O.J. Simpson after listening to him describe himself as an affable guy who has led a “conflict-free life” and paid his dues without complaining.

CBS clocked the biggest crowd from 1-3 PM ET: 3.1 million viewers – 748K of them in the news demographic. Another 2.3M tuned in to ABC, including 544K 25- to 54-year-olds. NBC logged 1.9M viewers including 548K news-demo viewers, and Fox stations logged another 1.3M with 478K in the demo.

Fox news logged 1.74M viewers including 332K in the demo. CNN beat FNC in the demo (347K) and averaged 1.13M viewers in total. MSNBC contributed 961K total viewers, 199K of them in the news age bracket.

Simpson could be released as soon as October 1 after serving nearly nine years of a 33-year maximum sentence for armed robbery at a Las Vegas hotel. A panel of four members of the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners gave him a unanimous thumbs up, after listening to him boast that “nobody ever accused me of pulling any weapon on them.” Unironically, he added, “I would never ever pull a weapon on anybody.”

He topped that one with a remark about having led “a conflict-free life,” which came as news to those who covered his trial for the 1994 slayings of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, who had repeatedly called 911 about him, and her friend Ron Goldman, who was in the wrong place at the worst time.